The Archangel (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter Fourteen

Bucky and Steve regained consciousness just before we arrived, which was good, I didn't want to have to try and wake them while keeping us aloft, that would have been difficult. Sam hovered just beside me with Nat and Clint. "Cap, where you wanna touch down?"

"On the roof." He called up to me. I signaled to Sam and tilted my wings to come in at an angle. I didn't want to beat my wings or hover incase it made noise that could alert them to our presence. I dropped Steve and Bucky when I was roughly six feet above the roof, pulled my wings in tight to my body, and drifted so I landed lightly on the balls of my feet. Sam did a similar maneuver except he had to cut power to his jetpack to remain unnoticed and tumble down, landing with a roll.

"This place is too big for the four of us to search it, we'll need you two to pull double duty." Steve commanded me and Sam. I nodded my ascent, having come to a similar conclusion.

The six of us separated into teams of two and moved to different sections of the building, Nat and Clint, Steve and Sam, Bucky and myself, all fanning out in separate directions to find a way in. Bucky stopped me before I could get too far and pressed a knife into my hands, I nodded my thanks and we moved forward as a synchronized unit. Our training in Hydra perfectly complimented each other, we were instinctively watching each other's backs as we cleared the roof and located entrances.

I looked up to see where the other teams had gone. Nat and Clint had found some sort of air vent, Sam and Steve were standing by a skylight looking in, and we stood by a grate. Had no idea what a grate was doing on the roof but it was an entrance, might as well use it. On a nod from Steve, we breached. I pulled up the grate, it was just narrow enough that Bucky could lower himself down without difficulty. He stood under the grate and held up his hands for me to drop down. I pulled my wings in close and slid through the grate, trusting him to catch me. He held me up by my hips so I could pull the grate back into place behind me before setting me back on my feet.

We covered both ends of the hallway as we moved, one of us constantly checking behind us for pursuers. It was fluid between the two of us, constantly covering each other as we moved through the hallways. The weapons, whatever they were, were likely about the size of a vehicle, that means we were looking for a room large enough to be a garage, maybe a loading bay or storage room of some kind.

I spotted a garage door halfway down the corridor and patted Bucky's shoulder to get his attention, I nodded at the door and he returned it. We moved into position on either side of the door, double checked to make sure the hallway was empty, and put our ears to the door to listen if there was anyone on the other side. There were other—residential—buildings on the property so the only people present should be the guards, we shouldn't run into Trident or his family in this building but we had no idea how many WMDs he had.

There were voices on the other side of the garage door, I could hear footsteps coming from around the corner. "Damn," I muttered under my breath, and pointed at the ceiling tiles. Bucky nodded, moved a ceiling tile, and hoisted me up into the rafters, I quickly pulled him up and replaced the ceiling tile just before a pair of guards passed underneath us. We moved inside the ceiling across the garage space over to where the voices were loudest. Bucky cracked a ceiling tile open so we could peer inside. He cursed at what he saw and moved aside so I could see it too. "Shit's right," I muttered, that wasn't a nuke.

There was a cylindrical glass container, inside it was a noxious green gas and the only reason it hadn't escaped was because the container was very clearly air-tight and sealed shut. There were four guards surrounding it and Trident was speaking with a man wearing foreign military fatigues. This was a sale. "What do we do?" Bucky breathed.

"We can't wait for Steve or the others." I whispered back, "a nuke they'd need time to arm and launch, with chemicals, they could release it at any time."

Bucky nodded his assent, "then we'll need a plan." We observed the scene further. "See that case, it's probably got a controller in it, we have to get it before we take out the gas."

I looked Bucky up and down, noting the gun, the two clips of ammo, and the knife he had at his hip, he was well armed. "You take out the case, I'll cover you."

Bucky nodded again, "and Trident?"

"He's not the job." I whispered, readying the knife he had given me. On a nod, we dropped in. Bucky went straight for the case and I went for the gunmen, the man in fatigues managed to escape out a side exit. My wings opened in a shield for Bucky and the bullets bounced off my metal skin as I took out the guards, chipping the black paint with each impact. In my peripheral vision, I caught sight of Bucky grabbing the case and checking it. He nodded my way, the controller must be in it.

Then everything went to hell.

Bucky stumbled, cursed, fell, blood leaked from his leg. He'd been shot. Looking up, I saw Trident holding a gun and running for the exit. I was at Bucky's side in an instant and examining the wound, it was just a graze, but it needed medical attention, definitely bandaging. I formed a makeshift bandage from a piece of his shirt, he groaned in pain as I fastened it tightly around his leg. "You dumbass, I'm the bulletproof one!" I grumbled, anger to hide my concern, "don't go anywhere."

Bucky snorted at my remark and shooed me off, knowing exactly what I was planning on doing. "Don't get shot, it's not fun." I rolled my eyes and ran after Trident. I caught up to him as he burst through an emergency exit causing the fire alarm to go off. So much for stealthy. I pounced on the man, he tumbled to the ground, and I stabbed the knife through his hand. I have to say, I quite enjoyed the sound he made.

"See, you're not my mission, but you made this personal when you shot my partner." And just like that, I snapped his neck. Guess there was more of hydra's dog left in me than I thought, but this time, I killed by choice. Which was worse?

I disassociated myself from the kill, I didn't know what would happen if I spiraled. With that thought in mind, I robotically returned to the garage and found the others waiting. It looked like they had secured the chemical and the controller, but that didn't matter, I bypassed everyone and went straight to Bucky. "Where's Trident?" Natasha asked.

"Dead."

"He wasn't the mission." Steve snapped, he sounded as if he was trying to keep from jumping down my throat.

"He made it personal." I snarled back, a small fraction of myself had shifted mindsets and was now treating Steve—and everyone else—as a hostile. I turned to where I had left Bucky, "Ready?" He nodded with a sigh and I helped him to his feet, slinging his arm around my shoulder so he could use me as a crutch. "Find your own way back." I shot at Steve as I passed him, he probably noticed that I was still hostile.

"Be nice, Angel, he's a friendly." Bucky implored. I pointedly ignored him as we made our way out into the open. "And please, slower this time."

I didn't answer for a second, then sighed, "fine, but only because you're injured."